Tougher Anti Piracy Laws to cause a stir.
Hard - working software resellers attempting to earn an bona fide income are nowadays coming to terms with a conflict with software pirates that seems to be getting more ardent every day; this is caused by burning, ripping, mod-chips and and p2p technologies that let software pirates to peddle unlawful software at discount prices at the good old folk - friendly weekend bazaar.
Brand-new tougher software laws for Australia.
Because of the Australia - US Free Trade Agreement that came into effect at the start of the year, persons who now produce illicit copies of software that are thereafter used in business or are duplicated with the intention of receiving a profit or commercial gain, could be slugged with criminal penalties, including prison terms. The software laws were designed to establish Australia on an equivalent footing with the US.
Even though piracy laws in Australia are currently not uniform to those in place in the USA, the follow developments in the States show a picture of what is to come:
One familiar fight between governments and software pirates is the appropriately named Operation Buccaneer, a continuing collection of investigations and prosecutions against pirates carried out by the the US Department of Justice.
Operation Buccaneer tries to come down on unlawfully distributed music games, movies, software, and other copyrighted products. According to the US Justice Department, no less than thirteen copyright infringers have now been sentenced to federal jail terms of as much as forty six months!
In the past month in Australia, a deluge of copyright-related cases has continued to spill out from courthouse doors. A case involving BitTorrent, ISP Swiftel and Music Industry Piracy Investigations come to a conclusion. In that case a few employees of Swiftel's and clients allegedly made a BitTorrent system that allowed the unlawful distribution of 1000's of video and music files.
Next was the Microsoft case, handed down on 28 Oct 2005 by Australia's Federal Court (it's highest court) where Microsoft hit out at Sydney's PC Club Australia for pirating it's software. In the end, PC Club was ordered pay a huge $1. 3 million to the software behemoth.
The new laws are tightening Australia's stranglehold on piracy, and the heavy fines and jail sentences will create some sleepless nights for pirates. It will be intriguing to see how useful the new software laws will be.
Note: This article is only for informational purposes. It is not legal advice nor a substitute for legal advice. Readers should get legal advice in relation to their own circumstances.
About the Author: Alan Arnott is a technology lawyer with qualifications in computer science and law. He is an associate of Arnotts, a software law firm in Sydney Australia.
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